


Strangeness & Charm

by E_Salvatore



Series: Eleanor's Advent Calendar Challenge [9]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M, it's the ultimate road trip!, so worry not for there are zero underage shenanigans involved, this fic spans 13 years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-02-25 17:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13217946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/E_Salvatore/pseuds/E_Salvatore
Summary: As Champion of the Labyrinth, Sarah is given one wish - no strings attached, no hidden repercussions, no consequences that will haunt her and her family for the rest of their lives. She chooses to spend the next thirteen years exploring the hundreds and thousands of worlds the Labyrinth is connected to.No strings, no repercussions, no consequences - just one condition: the Goblin King is to accompany her on all her travels.Title from Florence + The Machine's "Strangeness and Charm".





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Eleanor's Advent Calendar Challenge was my brilliant idea to attempt to write something new every single day for the first twenty-five days of December. To no one's surprise, I failed miserably. I'm still posting stuff anyway, because better late than never. This is Day 11.

_Lady Sarah Williams of the Aboveground –_

_Congratulations on your recent triumph over the ancient Labyrinth._

_In acknowledgement of your rare feat, we wish to reward you with a prize worthy of the Champion of the Labyrinth. We hereby offer you one wish of your choice, to be granted at no cost to yourself or your loved ones._

_Please contact King Jareth of the Goblin Kingdom, Keeper of the Labyrinth, to discuss your wish at your earliest convenience._

The letter is unsigned, and trying to figure out just who might be responsible for this missive keeps Sarah awake for four consecutive nights.

It’s only been a week since her adventure in the Labyrinth, but already she can feel her memories of that evening growing… fuzzy around the edges, like the precious few pictures and newspaper clippings she has of her mother, the ones she relegated to a small chest the day after her return. She can feel her adventure slipping from her mind like sand through one’s fingers, and with every passing day she grows more desperate to keep the magic alive, to keep her life from going back to what it was before.

When she realizes it’s been less than two weeks and she’s already struggling to remember her friends’ voices, Sarah knows exactly what she has to do.

Forget the potential repercussions, forget the fact that this might be a trap, forget the fear that grips her heart at the thought of dealing with the Goblin King once more. The idea of having magic grace her life only for her to forget about it entirely scares Sarah more than any of those things, and she’s saying the words before she can fully realize what she’s about to get herself into.

“I wish the Goblin King would come and talk to me.”

 

 

 

As it turns out, being given the chance to wish for _anything_ can be quite overwhelming.

Their first meeting is spent outlining the limitations of her reward (of which there are very, very few) and the potential consequences (practically non-existent, the Goblin King assures her). There might be a condition or two attached to her wish, but that would depend upon the nature of the request itself. By the time Sarah has thoroughly questioned her once-nemesis about this wish, it’s late and she’s way too tired to think of something.

The second time they meet, Jareth – he insists – offers to take her back to the Labyrinth. It wouldn’t count as her wish, merely an invitation extended from Keeper to Champion for her to properly learn all about the magical entity she has now forged a lifelong bond with. Sarah has just enough self-restraint to secure Jareth’s word that he’ll send her back to her own time and space the minute she asks him to before she’s eagerly travelling between worlds and running around the Labyrinth to seek out her friends. They don’t do much talking that time – Jareth trailing behind her with the occasional long-suffering sigh as she tracks down all of her friends – but something tells Sarah he doesn’t really mind. She even catches the occasional fond smile on him whenever he doesn’t realize she’s looking, but somehow she finds a way to convince herself that it must have been a trick of the light or something.

Finally, the day of their third meeting arrives. Summer’s nearly over, and it’s only a matter of days before Sarah will have to go back to school. She’s determined to settle the matter of her wish before then, to know what the year ahead will have in store for her. Jareth transports her to a remote section of the Labyrinth, one that’s entirely inaccessible by anyone other than the Keeper and Champion, and offers to share the true nature of the Labyrinth to buy Sarah a little more time.

“What’s beyond the Labyrinth?” Sarah asks instead, wondering if there’s even such a thing. It feels like the structure stretches on forever, or perhaps it’s ever growing at a rate faster than anyone can possibly travel and that’s why it feels endless.

“In this world? Nothing,” Jareth tells her cryptically, offering her the tiniest hint of a smile when she huffs at him in irritation, somewhat accustomed to his manner of speaking by now. He doesn’t charge for information, but it doesn’t exactly come at no cost either – the price is dedication and time, and the willingness to pry and question and piece together seemingly unrelated answers until they form a complete picture. In some ways, every conversation with Jareth is like a game of twenty questions.

It takes Sarah a while to make sense of his first clue, but she gets there eventually. “So you’re saying the Labyrinth leads to other worlds?”

Jareth practically beams at her in approval. “Precisely. The Labyrinth seems endless to the naked eye, but if you look closer you might see a flicker here and there, in places where it appears to stretch beyond your field of vision,” He offers her his hand, and suddenly they’re in his castle, standing before a truly magnificent view of the Labyrinth. “Anything beyond the flicker is no longer entirely the Labyrinth; the flicker is the veil between worlds – the doorway, if you will – and beyond that is another world entirely. You see, that is all the Labyrinth – and the Underground, to a certain extent – really is: a gateway to all the worlds your kind sealed away when you drove magic out from the Above.”

Sarah takes a closer look. Closer, and closer, and closer, until she’s squinting so hard her forehead is lined with effort. And slowly, the flickers reveal themselves to her, shimmering spots all over the endless structure she’s grown to love and admire and fear.

“So all of those flickers – like that one and that one and that one –” She points them out at random, picking the ones with the most intense concentration of shimmers. “All of them are gateways to different worlds?” Her voice is rising with excitement, with exhilaration, with anticipation.

“All those, and a hundred thousand more,” Jareth nods.

“A hundred thousand more,” Sarah echoes faintly, her mind struggling to wrap itself around the concept as she surveys the shimmering Labyrinth once more. It seems like another flicker reveals itself to her with every passing second, and Sarah grows more certain of her decision with every new and unknown world that shimmers invitingly at her.

She turns to Jareth with her shoulders held high and her mind made up. “I know what I want.”

“Are you sure?” The Goblin King asks, equal parts teasing and serious, one eyebrow raised in question.

Sarah nods. “I’m sure. I want to travel to all of those worlds, to see all the wonderful and strange things the universe has to offer.”

Jareth studies her for the longest while, tilting his head in a birdlike manner at some point. Finally, he seems to find whatever it is he was searching for in her determined eyes. “Very well. However, the universe is limitless and your wish is not. I can offer you thirteen years of uninhibited access to the gateways of the Labyrinth, and nothing more.”

A hundred thousand worlds in thirteen years. It’ll be a challenge, but Sarah has accomplished equally impossible-sounding tasks in significantly less time. After all, that’s how she got herself into this situation in the first place. “Deal,” She decides, offering Jareth her hand.

“One last thing,” He tells her, eyeing her proffered hand with a gleam in his eyes that betrays his amusement at her impatience. “A condition, if you will. I am to accompany you on all of your travels.”

Sarah narrows her eyes at him warily, to which the Goblin King holds up one hand in a wordless request for peace.

“I swear to you, right here and right now, with the Labyrinth as my witness, that I have no ulterior motives, no malicious intent. So long as your wish is being granted by my powers, you are under my care, and I cannot allow any harm to come to you. Some of these worlds will be dangerous for a mortal – hostile, even. I only ask that you allow me to accompany you to ensure your safety.”

Sarah’s known the guy for less than three months – hell, she doesn’t even know if he’s a guy or a goblin or some kind of faerie – but she trusts him. Jareth is many things, but a liar is not one of them. So she raises her hand once more, holds it out to him while her eyes maintain unwavering eye contact.

“Do we have an agreement, Goblin King?”

Jareth smiles, a slow curve of his lips and a twinkle in his eyes. He removes one glove and curls his bare fingers around Sarah’s hand.

“I believe we do, my dear Champion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've had this idea in the back of my mind for a little over a year now, and I've been waiting for the perfect time to sit down and write what was originally supposed to be a really long, really elaborate and detailed and whimsical one-shot. However, I realized I'm never going to find the time to do that and my attention span is crap, so now it's going to be three or four chapters of snippets instead. I hope you'll like it anyway. Feel free to drop by the comments below; I could use some human interaction that isn't work- or family-related.
> 
> Happy New Year!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eleanor's Advent Calendar Challenge was my brilliant idea to attempt to write something new every single day for the first twenty-five days of December. To no one's surprise, I failed miserably. I'm still posting stuff anyway, because better late than never. This is Day 13.

“So,” Sarah finds herself back in the Labyrinth just two days later, a bag of supplies resting on her shoulders and a ball of nerves and excitement churning in her stomach, “where to first?”

Jareth’s gaze briefly flits down to her right foot – excess energy tapping out an irregular beat – before his lips curl into something between a smile and a smirk, all obvious amusement and hidden fondness. “I was rather under the impression that you would be in charge of that.”

Sarah blinks. “I mean, yeah, I’ll pick, but first you’ve got to tell me what my options are. I can’t just randomly point at a gateway… can I?” She sounds equally excited and scared by the prospect, and Jareth lets out a short huff of laughter as he shakes his head at her and offers her his hand.

“Oh, precious,” He chuckles, and it’s the first time in a long time that he’s called her anything but her name but she can’t bring herself to point it out or discourage him, can’t risk doing anything that might wipe that genuine smile off his face or extinguish the spark in his eyes. “You can do absolutely _anything_ you want, as long as you stay by my side.”

Funny, how an idea that once sounded so revolting can seem almost tempting with a little less “let’s be each other’s slaves” and a little more “just stay with me”. But of course that isn’t what he meant – not that he ever meant it in the first place, even when it was revolting and frightening and too much, too fast – so Sarah just blinks, shrugs, and points at the nearest cluster of flickers.

“That one,” She declares, and leads the way fearlessly. After all, she’s safe so long as Jareth is right behind her. That’s definitely what he meant, right?

There’s no door for her to open, no threshold to cross, nothing to mark the end of one world and the beginning of another except for an oddly familiar _whoosh_ as she steps into the flickers. It feels like the blast of cold air that greets her whenever she steps into a mall, but instead of the usual assortment of stores she’s met with the sight of…

“Spaceships?” Sarah gasps, turning back to Jareth for confirmation. She moves too fast and he moves too slow, and her hands come up to brace themselves on his chest before she can fall face-first into her former nemesis. “Oops,” She squeaks as his hands reach for her shoulders to stabilize her.

Jareth smiles. “Spaceships,” He echoes affirmatively, but something tells her maybe the curve of his lips has more to do with her little blunder than her childlike excitement. Sarah pushes the thought out of her mind – she might be newly sixteen and dealing with out of control hormones and developing a bit of a crush, but there’s no way in hell she’s going to let that get in the way of this experience.

“Is this… the future?” She asks, craning her neck to get a better look at all the ships that dot the unfamiliar sky. Some of them seem to literally blink out of existence as they speed their way past the atmosphere, while others are flying so low and at such comparatively slower speeds that Sarah can’t tell if they’re spaceships or flying cars.

“We’re travelling through space, not time,” Jareth reminds her, voice hushed as he comes to stand by her side.

It might not be exactly what she was expecting for her first trip, but the purple sky and futuristic spaceships and dozens of unfamiliar-looking beings are still pretty damn magical, Sarah decides.

“C’mon,” She tugs on Jareth’s hand without quite realizing it, eyes already trained on the adventures that await them. “I want to see _everything_.”

 

 

 

“What’s Hell like?” Sarah asks Jareth over lunch one day. They do this sometimes, have a little picnic in his castle while she looks out the window and tries to narrow down her options for the day. Oh, if only Young Sarah could see her now: sitting cross-legged on the floors of the Goblin Castle, sharing a meal with the Goblin King himself, watching him choke on a grape-

“Oh, crap,” It takes some effort and a lot of balance to lean over the food and reach her hand around Jareth, but she manages to give his back a good few thumps eventually. “Are you okay?” She asks, handing him a glass of water before moving back to her spot.

“Nothing to worry about,” Jareth tries to assure her, voice hoarse and face the slightest bit red. “I just wasn’t expecting that, is all,” He adds after a long sip of water. “Why do you ask?”

She shrugs, hoping to feign nonchalance. “Just a random thought. I mean, if the Labyrinth is the gateway to all worlds, one of these portals has got to lead to Hell, right?”

Jareth eyes her with a familiar wariness. After all the trouble she’s gotten them into in the past year, she can’t really blame him for being cautious. “If we’re talking strictly about Hell as most humans know it,” He sighs, resigning himself to whatever madness this ‘random thought’ of hers will lead to, “then no, it does not.”

“A-ha!” Sarah cries victoriously before popping a grape into her mouth, careful to chew and swallow before she speaks again. “So there’s no Hell, but there _is_ some kind of afterlife or whatever out there.”

“Is there _any_ chance I might talk you out of this? There’s a lovely oceanic world I’ve been meaning to-”

“Next time,” She waves dismissively, brushing crumbs off her fingers as she leaps to her feet. “I wanna see my future home first.”

Something flashes in Jareth’s eyes at the casual mention of her inevitable death. She wonders sometimes if her mortality bothers him, if maybe he’ll miss her when she’s gone and he’s left with an eternity stretching ahead of him and no annoying teenage girl to help him pass the time. A part of her wishes he will, wishes that this – that _she_ – will be more than just another forgettable chapter in his long life; a bigger part of her works overtime to squash that selfish desire and the messy feelings responsible for it.

Sarah shakes the thought away, and Jareth blinks away whatever it is her words have evoked in him. She pulls him up to his feet and soon enough they’re in the Labyrinth.

“Lead the way, Goblin King.”

“Oh, I won’t be the guide this time,” Jareth smirks. “No living creature except one can locate the way to the realm of the dead.”

It’s second nature at this point, to catch his hand in her own as they start wandering around. She can reason it away, can tell both of them it’s just a reflex after nearly getting separated from him one too many times in a crowd, but that won’t change the fact that her heart starts racing every time he laces his fingers through hers. She really, really wishes this stupid crush would just _die_ already.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Sarah grins. “Which creature?”

Just then, a flash of black zooms past them and turns a right into one of the Labyrinth’s many winding paths. “That one,” Jareth says as he pulls her into a run.

“A _cat_?”

Jareth flashes her a rare smile – toothy and too wide and complete with mirth in his eyes – as they chase after their tiny guide. “Cats are very good at going where they shouldn’t go,” He explains with a shrug, and Sarah thinks about the cat Karen’s recently gotten and decides to go along with it.

Sure enough, the cat leads them to the afterlife. Sarah’s a bit too distracted by the way Jareth holds her hand the entire time to truly focus on the world she’ll someday spend the rest of eternity in without him. A small voice in her head tells her she’s deliberately not making any real memories with him here so that she won’t miss him when she comes back and he doesn’t. A louder voice covers her ears and sings some dreadfully off-key melody to drown the other one out.

 

 

 

“Can we go somewhere nice for a few days?” Sarah asks the day after finals, shoulders slumped with the combined weight of her weekend bag and the stress of the last few days. She flings the bag to the ground and practically collapses into the chaise lounge she’s claimed as hers.

“Won’t your sudden absence concern your parents?” Jareth points out distractedly, eyes still focused on whatever it is he’s reading. Sometimes she forgets that he’s an actual king, with a real kingdom to rule and a study constantly filled with laws and trade agreements and whatnot waiting for his attention. It occurs to her that unlike a high school senior, magical kings probably can’t just take off for a few days and go somewhere nice.

“They think I’m on a road trip with my friends,” She tells him, voice muffled by the pillow she’s planted her face in. Suddenly, she’s aware of every single ache in her shoulders, her neck… her poor, abused, overused head. “On second thought, I could just crash here. This is nice too. Keep working, just let me sleep,” Sarah’s out before she can hear Jareth’s reply, assuming there is one.

When she wakes, the light pouring in through the floor-to-ceiling windows is considerably dimmer than the blinding afternoon sun she’d closed her eyes to. At first she thinks maybe hunger has woken her, or perhaps the call of nature. It takes a while for her to realize a hand is gently shaking her shoulder as a soft voice murmurs her name.

“Hmm?” She hums in question, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep as she stretches cramped muscles and slumbering limbs.

Jareth’s face suddenly snaps into focus, hovering just a few inches above hers as he leans over the back of the chaise to address her. “I have completed my work for the day and notified the castle of my absence for the next two days. Did you have anywhere specific in mind?”

“Wait,” Sarah yawns as she pulls herself upright. “You’re actually up for a trip?”

“You look in need of some peace and quiet,” Jareth says as he moves to sit next to her. “And a king is _always_ in need of some peace and quiet so yes, I will happily accompany you. Where do you wish to go?”

If she hadn’t just woken up from a nap, Sarah would probably have some kind of reaction to Jareth taking two days away from his kingdom to go on vacation with her. As it is, she simply rests her head on his shoulder and shrugs. “You pick. Somewhere peaceful and pretty.”

After a moment’s thought, Jareth leans his head on hers and wraps an arm around her shoulder. “There’s a kingdom built entirely on trees, an entire forest’s worth of trees supporting a variety of structures and connected by an endless string of bridges. One of the Elven princes keeps a summer palace there, and his court is filled with jesters and artists and forest nymphs who will gladly share their rivers with visitors and braid flowers into their hair.”

“That sounds nice,” Sarah mumbles into his neck as the heavy fog of grogginess threatens to pull her under once more. “Okay, let’s go to Tree House World.”

Jareth laughs quietly; she feels rather than hears it, and the intimacy of the moment washes over her like a shower of freezing water, making quick work of her lingering drowsiness. “Okay,” She springs up to her feet and claps her hands together like an overexcited child, hoping Jareth won’t suspect the cause for her sudden flight from his arms. She’s a senior now, a college student come fall, an _adult_ in just a few weeks – and adults don’t let their stupid teenage crushes get in between them and their closest friend. So she shakes off the phantom weight of his arm around her and picks up her bag as Jareth stands up and straightens out his clothes, a force of habit more than anything.

“Tree House World, here we come,” Sarah announces as she accepts Jareth’s hand, and soon enough they’re in the most beautiful, serene forest she’s ever seen. They get separate rooms, spend nearly all of their time with jesters and artists and forest nymphs, and Sarah’s heart only aches for something _more_ four times, as opposed to the dozens of daydreams she usually finds herself entertaining on trips like these.

It’s a personal record. She takes that as a sign, and says yes when a vaguely-familiar classmate asks her out at her first college party that fall.

 

 

 

“I broke up with David,” She announces one day in lieu of a greeting, causing Jareth to choke on his tea.

“Sarah,” He shoots her a half-hearted glare as he waves away the drops of tea that threaten to stain his shirt. “I’ve told you-”

“To announce myself and never, ever take you by surprise because who knows what you might do with your super-fast reflexes and survival instincts, what if you attack me before realizing who I am, yada yada yada,” Sarah rolls her eyes. “C’mon, I’m feeling adventurous today. Let’s pick a random one.”

Jareth huffs and scowls and crosses his arms, but follows her nonetheless when she leaves the room and heads for the closest exit.

“What did David do?” He finally asks once they’ve left the castle behind. “Shall I send a few goblins to give him a good scare? Perhaps throw him in the center of the Labyrinth and let him stumble around for a few hours?”

“No need for any of that,” Sarah dismisses his suggestions, well-intentioned though they are. “He’s a great guy, didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe he even did everything right, if you ask anyone else,” She nibbles on her lower lip as she considers both her words and the portal on her left. After a moment, she keeps walking. “I just… got bored, I guess.”

“Bored,” Jareth echoes flatly. “You got _bored_ of someone who has done nothing wrong and everything right.”

Sarah turns to flash him the briefest of glares. “Hey, save the judgement for someone who hasn’t seen the never-ending string of scorned and heartbroken lovers on your doorstep, Your Majesty. I just…” She sighs, all irritation and defensiveness suddenly draining out of her. “I only have ten years left to explore all of this. I have my whole life to find someone. So yeah, I got bored and picked magical adventures over date nights.”

She locates an unusually dark concentration of flickers before Jareth can react to her little rant, and steps into the unknown world without a moment’s hesitation. It’s not like she has anything to fear -of course he’ll be right behind her, of course she’ll be safe as long as he’s around.

It takes a while for her eyes to adjust to the darkness she has stepped into, for the blurry outlines of their surroundings to settle into trees.

“Oh, come _on_ ,” She groans at the disappointing sight. And here she’d had such high hopes for this portal. “Another forest world? How many of these are there?”

“Sarah,” Jareth says very, very quietly. It takes a while for her to place the unfamiliar note in his voice, to identify it as apprehension. “I don’t think we should be-”

The usually reassuring weight of his hand lands on her shoulder at the exact same time cold, long fingers encircle her wrist and pull her off balance. She shrieks as she crashes to the ground, hisses when she feels a burning sensation on her inner wrist, swallows a scream when she sees Jareth fling her unknown assailant a good twenty feet away with a flick of his wrist.

“We need to leave,” Jareth helps her up to her feet and hurries her back to the portal. Experience has taught her that only those travelling with the Keeper of the Labyrinth can see or use the gateways, but she can’t help the shiver that travels up her spine at the thought of the creature following them.

The late afternoon sunlight is blinding but welcome after their brief run-in with darkness and things that hide in the shadows.

“What the _hell_ was that?” Sarah demands, eyeing the portal with no small amount of fear. A look at her arm reveals three red scratches from where Jareth ripped the creature’s fingers away from her. “Is this bad?” She holds out her wrist for inspection.

Jareth pulls off a glove and traces the scratches with his bare fingers, angry red fading to faint pink in the wake of his touch. “That was… bad timing,” He finally says, allowing Sarah’s hand to drop back to her side. “It’s a lovely world, usually. Unfortunately the inhabitants tend to get a little… starved during the long night.”

“That thing was going to _eat_ me?”

“No, no,” Jareth hurries to reassure her as he leads her away from the flickers. “Not _eat_ you, just… drain your life force.”

Sarah comes to a sudden halt. “Vampires,” She mutters as she slumps against a mossy patch of wall and slides to the floor. “I almost got eaten by a vampire. _Christ_ ,” Her eyes widen as something occurs to her. “Jareth, you just saved my freaking life. I owe you. Big time."

“Don’t be ridiculous,” The Goblin King sighs as he joins her on the floor. “It is my responsibility to keep you safe, Sarah. You owe me nothing.”

“Oh, _hell_ no,” Sarah insists. “I’m pretty sure this counts as a life debt, and I’m not gonna have one of those hanging over me for the rest of my life. You don’t have to come up with something right now, but either I find a way to return the favor before our time is up or you ask me for something. Okay?”

Jareth casts a long-suffering look at the sky. After three and a half years, he must know that they’re equally matched when it comes to stubbornness. There’s no way he’s talking her out of this.

“If you insist,” He finally agrees, voice dripping with disdain.

Much later, it occurs to Sarah that she now owes a favor to the _Goblin King_ of all people. A really, really big favor. He could ask for pretty much anything, since it’s a life debt and all.

It’s a good thing they’re not enemies anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this... might be a disappointment to those of you hoping for more magical adventures, less relationship development. I know it's a disappointment to me. I originally intended for this to be 70% magical adventures, 30% relationship stuff, but I suck at world-building and writing good fantasy stuff and all that, so it looks like this is what we're stuck with. Sorry! 
> 
> In other news, this is going to have a total of five chapters. The next two will span years 5-8 and 9-12 of their travels, and Chapter 5 will cover their final trip and goodbyes (or maybe not).
> 
> Thanks for reading and as usual, I'd love to hear from you guys!


	3. Chapter 3

For her twentieth birthday, Jareth surprises her with a trip to a lovely little moon, one of the four that orbit whatever in-between world the Labyrinth occupies in physical space.

It’s familiar yet alien in the way she’s learned all worlds are, the mundane scenery of a picturesque forest coming together with the novelty of a low-gravity moon to create an entirely new experience. And when Jareth leads her to a clearing where all of her friends have gathered to throw her a birthday picnic… well, the experience becomes a hundred times better.

“You threw me a surprise birthday party?” Sarah asks, voice hushed in awe and surprise as she tears her eyes away from the unexpected sight to find a smiling Goblin King.

Jareth shrugs. “Where I come from, we mark age in decades. Given that today marks the beginning of your second decade, I felt the day deserved some pomp and circumstance.”

Sarah ignores his efforts to downplay his thoughtfulness and throws her arms around his neck. “You’re the best, Jareth. This is great. Thank you!” She gushes, allowing the embrace to linger just a little too long before she steps back and grabs his hand in hers. “Come on, I wanna talk to _everyone_.”

“Actually…” Jareth remains unmoved despite the way she’s pulling at his hand, and Sarah turns back with a question written on her face. “Today is for you and your friends, precious. You deserve a day together, especially before you return to that dreadful college life of yours.” Gently he tugs his hand free from hers, and offers her a small smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back at sundown to-”

“You’re my friend too,” Sarah points out, her voice smaller than she’d meant for it to be. “And I want you to be here. I want you to be a part of all this.” Of _everything,_ really, but there’s a secret she’ll never, ever tell anyone. “So unless you’ve got some Urgent Goblin Business to attend to, I’d really like it if you would stay and have a picnic with the rest of us, Jareth.”

He smiles, and Sarah dares to reach for his hand again. “Of course I’ll stay,” Jareth tells her gently, and hand-in-hand they walk over to join the others.

There are makeshift presents and impromptu speeches and at least five incidents caused by a handful of playful goblins, and Jareth stands by her side throughout it all, even when it’s obvious that he feels uncomfortably out of place. During an awkward lull in their conversation with Sir Didymus the fox looks around for a way out, and his little face lights up when his eyes land upon the unopened picnic baskets.

“I say, don’t you think it is time for us to feast, milady?” Didymus hints, tilting his head to indicate the baskets, and Jareth makes a sound of mild approval when they turn to him for his opinion.

Inside the baskets Sarah finds a wide range of dishes from multiple realms, and it only takes a moment for her to realize that these are all her favorites from every world they’ve visited.

“Jareth…” she says quietly, feeling him come to stand next to her as her eyes remain fixed on the contents of the first basket, the one he’d pointed out as _only for the birthday girl_ while Hoggle and the others tore into the rest of the food.

“I took the liberty of organizing a special menu for you,” he admits easily, moving into her space with no qualms or awkwardness from either of them to unpack the basket while she stares at him. “I thought perhaps you would appreciate the reminder.”

Sarah reaches out and places a hand on his forearm, and Jareth stills with a plate of bright purple fruit in one hand. “I do. I appreciate all of this, and everything you’ve ever done for me.”

They share a smile, and then make quick work of unpacking the rest of the food and eating it in relative peace while they watch a food fight break out between the others. In between running commentary on the food fight and reminiscing about the adventures behind each dish, Sarah finds herself occasionally muffling her laughter against Jareth’s arm or resting her head on his shoulder just because. And each time she does, she feels the prickling sensation of being watched.

Later, when Jareth finally decides he’s had enough of the fight and storms off to threaten everyone with the bog, Hoggle walks up to her. She hears his grumbling from ten feet away, his hands busy swatting away bits and pieces of food clinging to his sleeves.

“Hi, Hoggle,” Sarah smiles, setting her plate down as her friend settles in next to her on the picnic blanket she’s claimed for herself. “Cookie?” She offers him, plucking an oddly-shaped pastry from a small basket of baked goods.

Hoggle swipes the cookie from her hand and starts munching on it. “So what’s goin’ on there?” He mutters with his mouth full, nodding in the King’s direction.

And because it’s Hoggle and he’ll see right through any bullshit, because it’s been years now and she’s _still_ not over that stupid crush, because she has no girl friends to blab to about all the tiny things Jareth does for her sometimes, Sarah simply shrugs and tells Hoggle, very honestly, “I don’t know.”

“But yer okay with it?” Hoggle asks gruffly once he’s swallowed the last of the cookie. “He’s not forcin’ ye or trickin’ ye or nothin’, is he-”

Sarah laughs. “Hoggle, no! It’s not… it’s not like that at all.”

“Good,” her grumpy little friend huffs as he reaches for another cookie. “S’all I wanted to know. End of story. Don’t come to me with yer mushy feelings or nothin’, don’t want no part in any of that, ye hear me?”

She picks up the basket, shoves it into Hoggle’s arm, and allows him to make his escape as Jareth starts heading back. “Thanks for asking, Hoggle. I know you care.”

“Carin’ won’t do me any good, not when ye get into a mess with that rat and come cryin’ to me,” Hoggle mumbles as he wanders away, and his voice carries far enough that Jareth shoots his back an inquisitive look as he reclaims his place next to Sarah.

“What was that all about? Hogwash seems quite agitated, even for an old grump like him.”

Sarah rolls her eyes and bumps his shoulder with her own. “ _Hoggle_. Be nice. Besides, it was nothing. He just wanted to know if I’m doing okay.”

Jareth turns fully towards her, their knees bumping together as he shifts on the blanket. “And are you?”

She’s at a picnic on a beautiful alien moon with all of her dearest friends, a picnic he planned and threw for her birthday even though he’s a busy King and almost certainly has better things to do. But here he is anyway, along with all of her other friends, proof that she has people who care about her, that she _does_ fit in somewhere out there.

“Yeah,” Sarah smiles, feels her insides grow warm at the way Jareth’s lips curve to mirror hers almost instinctively. “Yeah, I’m great.”

As a graduation present, Jareth promises her a trip unlike any other.

“I don’t know why,” Sarah frowns as they trek to the true center of the Labyrinth, a spot accessible only by the Keeper and the Champion, “but for some reason I always thought you’re the only Keeper out there. I mean, there’s no other Labyrinth, is there?”

“Of course not,” Jareth sounds almost insulted as they venture deeper into the heart of the Labyrinth, hand-in-hand. “But there are other structures in each galaxy that serve a similar function, and each one has its own Keeper.”

They turn into a darkened section of the Labyrinth, a square walled off by ancient stone and thick ivy. In the center of it stands a door seemingly made of glass, and trapped within the glass is space itself, a swirl of stars and nebulae and galaxies.

“And every once in a while all of you decide to just hang out here?” Sarah asks, motioning at the door. Her breath catches as she realizes the tiny little universe is _moving_ within the glass, stars drifting lazily and nebulae swirling hypnotically.

Jareth’s hand finds the small of her back, a warm, grounding touch as she allows herself to be entranced by the door. “I would not describe it as such – we usually have quite pressing matters to attend to – but I suppose you could call it that. Now,” he waits until Sarah reluctantly tears her eyes away from the sight before asking, “are you ready to see the beating heart of all creation?”

It’s the most exciting question she’s ever been asked, and Jareth’s grin is infectious. “Lead the way, Goblin King,” she says without a moment’s hesitation, and within seconds he’s reaching for her hand and leading them towards the door, which opens with a wave of his hand.

They step through, and Sarah loses all of her senses save touch. The silence is deafening, the darkness disorienting, and Jareth’s hand giving hers a gentle squeeze is the only source of comfort until–

There, in the darkness: a pinprick of light, stars bursting into existence the way they do when one presses down on their closed eyelids. The little dots gain color, grow long and thin, and eventually Sarah realizes that she’s staring down at the ground, a layer of glass between her and millions of tiny, glowing streaks of color and light and magic.

“Each one is a connection,” Jareth murmurs, his hand still in hers. “The path between portals, between worlds.”

“It’s beautiful,” Sarah breathes, her eyes darting from one shimmering thread to another, a rainbow tapestry constantly shifting, ever-moving in this living, breathing universe of theirs. She makes the conscious decision to focus only on one luminescent streak at a time, because to step back and see the bigger picture would be…

Jareth tugs on her hand. “Sarah, look up. Look around.”

It’s not just the floor. The walls, the ceiling, everywhere she turns – it’s as if they’re in a transparent bubble floating in space, which might be the case for all that she knows. Connections everywhere, and each end of each thread a different world.

She has never felt so small, so inconsequential, so _mortal_.

“I always knew thirteen years wouldn’t be enough,” Sarah rasps, speaking around the lump that’s formed in her throat. “But this… Jareth,” she turns to him, finds comfort and stability in his familiar eyes even as they reflect the universe around them. “You could travel for a hundred years, for a _thousand_ , and still not see it all.”

“Oh, precious,” Jareth smiles, tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “You could travel for a million years and still, the universe would remain a secret. Every day worlds die and new ones rise to take their place, faster than anyone could possibly keep track of. I could live for the rest of time and still fade into the afterlife without fully experiencing all of creation.”

Her own mortality, she’s comfortable with. But the idea that even Jareth will die someday, that there’ll be a world where he doesn’t exist… it’s not one she likes to dwell on. Sarah forces herself to look away, to stare into the very fabric of the universe. It’s beautiful, for all that it terrifies her and excites her and saddens her.

“Try anyway,” she tells Jareth, watching a hundred thousand worlds race past them. “Promise me you’ll try, promise me you’ll keep traveling even after I’m gone.” When she turns back to him, Jareth has lost him smile. “Even if you can’t see them all, you should see as many as possible. For me,” she adds after a moment’s thought, barely a whisper.

Jareth steps into her space, curves one gentle hand around her cheek. “It wouldn’t be the same,” he tells her, eyes intent on hers. “It wouldn’t matter, without you.”

“I know,” Sarah says quietly, leans in and rises up on her tiptoes to press her forehead to his. She can feel his eyelashes fluttering against her skin as his eyes close, the lightest of butterfly kisses. “But do it anyway, and think of me every time you see something extraordinary.”

“Sarah,” Jareth shakes his head, and when she pulls away she finds him smiling again. “I already do.”

He doesn’t promise her he’ll go on without her, and she doesn’t press the matter. They sit cross-legged on the floor – on the _universe_ – and spend hours watching all of creation bustle about around them, and Sarah pretends this fleeting glimpse of every world in existence is enough for her, pretends thirteen years and a mere _fraction_ of the universe will be satisfactory, pretends she’ll still be able to walk away from all of this – from _him_ – when the time comes.

 

 

 

About a year into her first job, Sarah takes her first-ever fake sick day. 

“It’s just so _miserable_ ,” she huffs by way of explanation when Jareth questions her sudden appearance on a weekday. “I hate the work, I hate the people, I hate the office – I hate _everything_.”

Jareth doesn’t look up from whatever it is he’s focused on, possibly that new trade agreement with a neighboring kingdom he’s been talking about all month. “Then quit.”

“I _wish_ ,” Sarah groans unthinkingly, flippantly. _That_ draws Jareth’s attention, and the beginnings of a smirk form on his lips as he looks up at her. “Okay, no, you know what I mean. I’d _love_ to quit, but I’m an adult now, with adult bills. I need money for rent and food and stuff.”

“Is that all?” Jareth asks almost incredulously. “If you’re subjecting yourself to a miserable existence merely for continued shelter and food, then I see no reason why you should not quit. We’ve plenty of space and food here in the castle, and I would not make you pay for any of it.”

Sarah blinks at him. Jareth looks at her. She blinks again, and still he’s giving her that expectant look. “Wait, seriously? You’re saying I should just give up my job and my apartment to move into your castle and be, what, a freeloader?”

Jareth tilts his head to the side in that owl-like manner of his she’s never quite gotten used to. “A freeloader?”

“It’s–” She runs through possible definitions only to realize that Jareth would probably just dismiss the idea as a ridiculous notion and point out that no one takes advantage of the Goblin King. “Never mind. The point is, I can’t just give everything up and move to the Underground. Besides, I can’t stay here forever. What happens when I’m 28 and homeless and broke with little to no job experience?”

It’s quiet for a moment, Jareth ducking his head and returning his attention to his work while Sarah lets herself get carried away by a daydream where she _could_ stay here forever. It’s a nice daydream, one she finds herself thinking of more and more these days. No matter how mature she likes to think she is, a part of her will forever be that little girl waiting to be magicked away to a fantasy realm.

“You could,” Jareth says quietly after a while, breaking Sarah out of her reverie. She looks up to find him with a quill in hand now, scribbling away at the roll of parchment on his desk. He doesn’t elaborate, doesn’t look up at her or indicate that he’s waiting for an answer.

It’s for the best, really. There’s no answer she can give him, anyway.

So Jareth scribbles away, and Sarah stares out of the window beyond his desk, and eventually enough time passes for him to set down his quill and roll up the parchment. “Come along, then,” Jareth says lightly, pulling her to her feet. “The goblins are making preparations for the coming winter, and I think you’ll quite enjoy tagging along.”

“Where are we going?” Sarah asks as they leave his study, the roll of parchment still clutched in his free hand.

“A world with leaves the size of a human, and berries as big as your head.”

Sarah laughs, thinks it’s a joke the way he once described a world straight out of _Alice in Wonderland_ as a prank.

And then they step into a world with berries so big the goblins must work in pairs to roll their harvest along the forest and back into their realm. She sees leaves big enough to sleep on, bushes the size of a cottage, and pika-like creatures that are half her size.

“It’s a young world,” Jareth tells her as they stroll down a path that should take them past all the goblins, allowing their king to check in on them and make sure they’re gathering enough supplies; the roll of parchment, it turns out, is something of a grocery list. “Going through a similar phase as your world once did, when megafauna roamed the Earth. For the most part this realm is left undisturbed so that nature may take its course, but every few years we open the doorway so that kingdoms may stock up for the coming winter.”

A pika – the first one they ran into, if Sarah remembers correctly – takes a liking to her and falls into step with them, butting its wet nose into her palm every so often to seek affection. She absentmindedly scratches along the back of its ears as Jareth points out butterflies bigger than any bird she’s ever seen, and flowers a child could curl up in, and there, in the distance, a passing herd of something so big it’s impossible to tell what they are.

“It’s like a land before time or something,” Sarah whispers in awe as the sky grows dark under the wingspan of a passing bird, big enough to momentarily blot out the sun. “Only without dinosaurs.”

“Another time,” Jareth promises her easily, automatically, even as his eyes remain fixed on the list.

Sarah focuses only on the excitement the promise brings her, resolutely does _not_ think of how little time they truly have left.

_You could_ , he had said back in his study, leaving the rest of the sentence to linger, unsaid, in the air between them.

_You could stay forever._

At the age of thirteen, Sarah had wanted nothing more than to be the star of a grand spectacle, the princess in a whimsical tale of adventure and magic and impossible things.

Ten years later she finds herself the creator of said spectacle, slaving over a final round of edits on her debut novel during her brief Christmas break. Gone are the princesses and knights of Young Sarah’s tale; in their place is a story about the vastness of the universe, about differences and similarities in a thousand worlds, about adventure and magic and impossible things on a whole different level.

If the book does well – and her editor assures her it will –, Sarah might just be able to quit that job of hers after all. But for now, she’s still just an aspiring author with a full-time job that usually keeps her from being able to spend much time on her book. _One final push_ , her editor had said. _Take as much time off as you can, stock up on food, and just hole yourself up in your apartment for the rest of the year. It’ll all be worth it to get your book in stores as soon as possible._

So here she is on New Year’s Eve, having spent nearly every waking moment of the past week polishing her work. Now her cursor blinks over the very last sentence of her manuscript, and Sarah exhales for what feels like the first time all week.

It’s done – for now, at least, and just in time.

She emails the final version over to her editor, checks and double-checks the attachment before she clicks send. And then she rushes into her bedroom, takes a hasty shower and pulls on some fresh clothes before she tumbles, head-first, into her mirror-portal.

“Jareth, I did it! I’m finally done! Can we still make it to the–”

The Goblin King scrambles to pull himself upright from where he’d been lounging on his throne, and he blinks at her as if she’s an apparition for a good ten seconds before he speaks.

“Sarah, I… wasn’t expecting you. Since you did say not to do so, thanks to that editor of yours and the book and something about deadlines, I believe.”

“Yeah, well,” Sarah shrugs with a grin, still giddy from her newly-earned freedom. “The book is done and the deadline has been met and my editor is going to be too busy reading to bug me for the next few days, so here I am. Can we still make it to your father’s festival?”

Jareth twists his wrist, conjures up a crystal that pops to reveal the most complicated looking calendar Sarah has ever seen. Time runs differently in all the realms, he’d told her earlier this month when he first extended the invitation to the festival, and trying to figure out _when_ exactly the Summer Court is can always be quite the ordeal.

After some intense calculations, Jareth waves the calendar out of existence and hops off his throne to make his way to her. “If we leave now, we should arrive just in time for the final night. Shall we?” He holds out his hand, and Sarah moves forward to loop her arm around the crook of his.

The portal to the Summer realm is within the castle grounds itself – Jareth likes keeping his father near, apparently – and it isn’t long before Sarah finds herself right in the middle of a crowd of people, all dancing and singing and enjoying themselves.

Her clothes had switched to match the other festival-goers as soon as she’d set foot in this realm, and out of the corner of her eye she can glimpse Jareth in a matching, similarly over-the-top getup. The clothes themselves are simple – a gauzy dress for her, loose-fitting tunic and pants for him – but it’s the crystals in their hair and the glitter on their skin and the flowering vines wrapped around their limbs that truly denote them as revelers in the Summer King’s court.

Sarah’s never been to one of these, has only heard Jareth’s stories about all the festivals he was made to attend during his younger years with his father. Those tales had seemed exaggerated, embellished beyond belief and possibility. But now, standing here in a crowd of thousands, Fae and nymphs and all sorts of lively creatures surrounding them, pressing her and Jareth closer and closer together as they all move with abandon to the spirited tune floating in the air, Sarah realizes that Jareth has simply been telling it as it is all these years.

Someone presses a goblet of wine into her hand and Sarah, already intoxicated by the atmosphere alone, drinks without reservations. She allows herself to be pulled into a large circle, drags Jareth along with her and laughs whenever she catches his eye as they go round and round. There’s a wry grin on his face when the circle finally breaks off.

“Having fun?”

“So much fun,” Sarah gushes, throwing her arms around his neck in an attempt to stabilize herself after all of that dizzying merry-go-round dancing. “This is the _best_ , Jareth. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I’d bring you anywhere, precious,” Jareth murmurs, his smile growing soft as his hands settle on her waist.

There’s a different promise he could have made her, in another life.

_I’ll bring you everywhere._ It’s the kind of life where he didn’t leave the words _stay forever_ unspoken, and she had an answer to give him. It’s that lifetime where they’ve both got all the time in the world to explore the universe, and he’ll never have to do it without her. It’s the life Sarah dreams about every night and wishes they could have.

Later, she will chalk it up to letting herself get carried away. Jareth will blame the honeyed wine he didn’t see her drinking. The both of them will dance around this for months, even years, to come.

But for now, Sarah curls her fingers into the hair at his nape and guides Jareth’s lips down to hers, and they kiss for the very first time in a crowd of thousands, surrounded by magic and joy and love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Six months. It's been six months since I last updated this fic.
> 
> I am so, _so_ sorry to have left all of you hanging. I promise you I'm back now, and I'm going to do my very best to have this story wrapped up by the end of August. Thank you so much to everyone who kept reading and leaving comments and kudos even when the days stretched into weeks and weeks turned into months. You're the reason this chapter was written, and I hope you've enjoyed it.
> 
> If you have any comments or thoughts, I'd love to hear them below. Thank you so much for reading.


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